MOSCOW. Nov 29 (Interfax) - Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova says she believes the way Russian citizen Maria Butina is being held in detention in the United States does not comply with civilized standards and that her health has dramatically worsened.
"In light of reports about the tightening of Maria Butina's detention regime, I urge media outlets and the global community to support our request that the U.S. authorities soften the detention regime of our compatriot," Moskalkova said in a statement on Thursday.
Butina is currently in solitary confinement and can only leave for two hours at night, which has dramatically affected her health, she said.
"Obviously, this kind of treatment of a person under investigation does not meet the standards of a civilized society, not to mention the United States, which has traditionally prioritized the issue of human rights," Moskalkova said.
Butina is a young woman who has not been charged with violent crimes, "who did not intend to cause harm to the state, and who has had exclusively positive references from the places she has worked and studied," she said.
"I hope the voice of media outlets and the global community will be heard by the U.S. authorities and will prompt them to display impartiality, mercy, and humanism and change Maria Butina's detention regime," Moskalkova said.
On July 16, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Butina, 29, with "criminal conspiracy" and "working as a foreign agent [in the United States] without the proper notification of the Attorney General's Office."
According to investigators, Butina conspired to promote Russia's interests in the United States starting in 2015. Allegedly, she acted as an agent for a Russian official and used her personal contacts with an American who had influence on U.S. policy.
She pleaded not guilty.
Butina was put in a solitary cell immediately after her arrest, but on September 22, the Russian embassy to the U.S. reported that the administration of the prison in the town of Alexandria had moved her to the general population. Butina could then sleep normally, take exercise, and communicate with other inmates.
Ivan Melnikov, the vice president of the Russian office of the UN Human Rights Committee, said on Wednesday that Butina had been able to call her father and told him she had been placed in solitary confinement again a week before and that she was allowed walks between 2:00 and 4:00 a.m.
Melnikov said Moskalkova had been asked to intervene.